Gottlieb pitches ‘subscriptions’ to incentivize pharma to make new antibiotics

Clusters of aerobic gram-negative, non-motile Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria, an organism that has developed substantial antimicrobial resistance. Treatment of infections related to the organism has become increasingly difficult.Janice Haney Carr/CDC

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is talking with other federal agencies and even the private Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation about new ways to encourage drug makers to develop more antibiotics, agency Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a speech Friday.

The problem Gottlieb wants to address is twofold. First, as bacteria become immune to the current arsenal of antibiotic medicines, more than 20,000 Americans are dying each year from these hard-to-treat infections. Drug companies, however, have few financial incentives to develop better drugs.

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